


Steve and Bucky's Nurturing Skills

by CloakedSparrow



Series: Marvel Ficlets & Headcanons Collection [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, No Dialogue, No Romance, No Sex, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Past Character Death, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 21:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11022048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloakedSparrow/pseuds/CloakedSparrow
Summary: Despite all that they have in common and how much time they've always spent together, Steve and Bucky's individual nurturing skills have developed quite differently.





	Steve and Bucky's Nurturing Skills

Between his medical issues, his temper and his need to prove himself, Steve never developed any nurturing skills.

He can give motivational speeches to rouse the masses into action or get just a few more miles out of an exhausted band of soldiers at the drop of a hat. However, he has no idea what to do with babies or small children and doesn’t understand why people constantly hand him their small, wiggly, easily damageable offspring for photos with such trust.

He doesn’t handle grief well, his own or anyone else’s. He doesn’t know what to say when Wanda gets into a dark mood because something reminded her of Pietro and she misses him fiercely, so he tells her to meet him in the Avenger ‘s training room because they need to work on her hand to hand defense.

When he casually asks Darcy how her day is going and she starts crying because her boyfriend left her, he offers to take her out to get drunk because its all he _can_ offer. He has no idea what to say to Tony when he locks himself in his workshop for days on end after screwing up on a mission. What he thought would be a nice motivational speech got cut off by Tony yelling ‘For the last time, I’m not a damn soldier!’ and banning him from his workshop.

Steve has long since made his peace with this aspect of his personality and just doesn’t understand why all of the others expect him to be so sensitive and nurturing because that was _never_ him.

Bucky on the other hand, always took care of Steve after he’d been fighting or when he was sick and he practically raised his little sister after their mother died. He has developed _amazing_ nurturing skills.

He can determine people’s emotional needs easily and generally knows exactly what to say or do to improve them. He can brush the back of his hand against someone’s neck or or drop a kiss on their cheek and tell their exact temperature. He can make soup out of _anything_ , providing it was edible to begin with. He can get any baby or small child to sleep in five minutes.

He made sure none of his men fell into despair after they were captured by Hydra in the war. He has Wanda smiling and telling happy stories of her brother with seemingly little effort. He can make Darcy laugh and decide she’s much better off without what’s-his-name without so much as a shot of alcohol. He joins Tony in his workshop for an hour and suddenly Tony’s making plans to take the group out for dinner and rescinding Steve’s workshop ban.

Bucky’s a great friend, soldier and marksman, but he’s not really the leader type. He’s fine with that. Taking care of one person can be just as important as leading an army, as far as he’s concerned.


End file.
